January

This exhibition features historical material and works by 15 contemporary artists who respond to the Cuban freedom fighter José Antonio Aponte's lost "Book of Paintings." The accompanying symposium brings together a group of scholars with some of the artists in the show to explore Aponte's history and the contemporary art inspired by his story.

This pioneering book by Dr. Abigail McEwen offers the first in-depth examination of Cuban art during the 1950s, following the intersecting trajectories of the artist groups "Los Once" and "Los Diez" against a dramatic backdrop of modernization and armed rebellion.

This stellar panel will feature curator Elizabeth Thompson Goizueta, art historians Alejandro Anreus and Abigail McEwen, and Hortensia Soriano, Director of the Rafael Soriano Foundation. The panelists will discuss Soriano's place within the abstract art movement in Cuba during the 1950s as well as the changes in his work after moving to the United States in 1962.

The Student Government Council and Campus Life at FIU-BBC Campus will once again honor the life and legacy of Cuban patriot and journalist, José Martí. The program will feature a light breakfast and speakers discussing issues of relevance to Martí's work. In addition, this year's scholarship recipient will be recognized.

Professor Leonardo Martín will examine the modernization experience of Uruguay in the early 20th century and its contemporary relevance for the Latin American region, including a future transition in Cuba.

The third edition of the festival, sponsored by FIU's School of Music, will be devoted to celebrating Miami's Cuban heritage, featuring extraordinary artists in eleven concerts, six masterclasses, five lectures, and a round-table composers panel.

On the 50th anniversary of the film, the Coral Gables Art Cinema is showing the restored version of this classic work, widely regarded as the best Cuban film of all time. Film critic Alejandro Ríos will introduce the film and lead a discussion with the audience.

Based on ethnographic research, Dr. Mrinalini Tankha will address the socio-cultural and political implications of the currency reform process to show how it partly dissolves economic bifurcation, but also throws into sharp relief over two decades of psychological separations and conflicting expectations of state and market spheres in Cuba.

This documentary, produced by Dr. Nelson Varas-Díaz, explores heavy metal in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, focusing on the sociopolitical realities that inform the bands in this region, the music's deep history, and how it has survived throughout the years.

This new bilingual volume, edited by Alberto Sosa Cabanas, compiles critical essays by 21 scholars specializing in Cuban culture, who invite readers to rethink and update their notions of the Cuban nation. The book brings together diverse approaches to Cuba's literary and cultural production inside and outside the island, including theater, documentary film, and the Internet.

Dr. Lillian Guerra draws on her years of research in newly opened archives and on personal interviews to shed light on the men and women of Cuba who participated in mass mobilization and civic activism to establish social movements in their quest for social and racial justice and for more accountable leadership.

In this important and timely volume, Dr. Lillian Guerra fills a significant gap in the literature, illuminating how Cuba's sovereign electoral democracy underwent a tumultuous transformation into a military dictatorship.

This lecture by David Virelles González will examine the Cuban "cinquillo," a rhythmic cell that can be found throughout sub-Saharan Africa and in several Cuban styles that emerged during Spanish colonial times.

This volume by renowned photographer Cynthia Carris Alonso is a stunning culinary and visual journey through Cuba that presents 75 authentic, never-before-shared recipes from the world's most inventive chefs.

This collection of essays by Dr. Jorge Sanguinetty focuses on the misery of political economy and the institutions that have managed recent changes in Cuba's economy, as well as provides glimpses of future solutions based on solid realism.

June

Dr. Jorge Camacho will assess Carlos Ripoll's contributions to our understanding of José Martí, and how Camacho's research project has led him to publish more than 50 previously unknown chronicles that Martí wrote while living in New York in the 1880s.

CRI Visiting Scholar Estíbaliz Santamaría Cadaval will showcase one of the most important examples of the visibility achieved by the Galician song: "Cántiga, Unha noite," composed by the Galician poet Curros Enríquez and musicians Alonso Salgado and José Castro "Chané."

July

One of the greatest Cuban films of all time, "Lucía" is director Humberto Solás' magnum opus, a sprawling historical triptych featuring women (who share the same first name) at a time of significant change on the island.

August

This illustrated lecture by Tony Pinelli will trace the history of the Cuban son from its origins in the rural areas of Oriente province in the late 19th century, to its extension to Santiago de Cuba and other cities in the 20th century.

Historically rich and engrossing, this book by Dr. Lisandro Pérez analyzes the major forces that shaped the Cuban community in New York, but also tells the stories of individuals and families that made up the fabric of a little-known immigrant world that represents the origins of the city's dynamic Latino presence.

This lecture by Dr. Ileana Pérez Drago will center on constructions of Havana's late colonial period and their relationship with European exponents of ironwork via a comparison of catalogs from England, Germany, France, and Spain.

The Cuban-American Studies Association (CASA) invites you to its welcoming reception for fall 2018. An opportunity to meet and greet. Drop by and keep in touch! Cuban and Hispanic refreshments will be provided.

Directed by Ernesto Fundora Hernández, "Lezama Lima: Speaking Freely" ("Lezama Lima: soltar la lengua") surveys the life and work of one of the most complex and interesting writers in the Spanish language.

The third centenary of the publication of Don Quixote was celebrated throughout the Spanish-speaking world, but the Cuban commemoration was particularly problematic because of the social divisions that remained on the Island following the recent War of Independence. Dr. Ricardo Castells analyzes how the speeches of the University of Havana's professors reflected an early optimism about the young Republic's boundless opportunities, even as they dealt with the Island's recent colonial history.

Leonardo Falcón, a Ph.D. candidate in History, presents the latest findings of his dissertation research in Mexico, Chile, Spain and Cuba, which has determined the efforts to establish an Inquisition Tribunal in Havana to counteract the English establishment of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607.

For reasons as varied as the differences between them, three major Cuban literary figures left the island where they were born and—without losing their identities—made an indelible imprint on the world at large. What the three documentary portraits that comprise this series have in common is the devotion of the filmmakers to rescue from oblivion and celebrate the spirit of these artists, to ensure that their memory will outlive us all.

This presentation by Dr. Don E. Walicek discusses the infractions on freedom that have taken place within and around Guantánamo Bay since it was seized by U.S. troops in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

This book, edited by Drs. Don E. Walicek and Jessica Adams, explores the humanities as an insightful platform for understanding and responding to the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, other manifestations of "Guantánamo," and the contested place of freedom in American Empire.

Repeatedly and powerfully throughout Cuban history, the mulata, a woman of mixed racial identity, features prominently in Cuban visual and performative culture. Tracing the figure, Dr. Alison Fraunhar looks at the representation and performance in both elite and popular culture.

"Relational Undercurrents" is the first major survey of twenty-first century art of the Caribbean, including Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. The exhibition opens after a panel discussion featuring curator Tatiana Flores, artists Adler Guerrier and Charo Oquet, and anthropologist Dr. Andrea J. Queeley.

National arts leader Carolina García Jayaram discusses the future of arts education, her leadership of some of the nation's premier cultural organizations, and the surprising choice she made as an undergraduate that helped her get to where she is today. The Humanities Edge FIU Director Ana Menéndez will moderate the conversation.

Sonia Fritz's documentary "Después de María: Las 2 orillas" is a look at Puerto Rico eight months after the passing of the hurricane. It explores several grassroots inititives around the island and the stories of families who emigrated to Orlando after the hurricane, as well as the important contribution of the diaspora in the reconstruction of the island.

"Havana Habibi" looks at the cross-cultural exchange and intermigration between Africa, Cuba, and the United States; examines what it means to be a Cuban belly dancer in revolutionary Cuba as well as the diaspora; and travels through time, geography, and space to tell a human story of healing, transformation, empowerment, liberation, and identity through the sensual metaphor of belly dancing.

In this illustrated lecture, researcher and music collector Ramón Gómez will review the artistic life of the Cuban singer Celia Cruz, focusing on her role as a performer of bolero music, and sharing images and boleros recorded by Celia throughout her glorious career.

This comparative analysis by Drs. Elaine Acosta González, Florencia Picasso Risso, and Valentina Perrotta González examines the public policies and social programs toward the aged population in three different countries.

Organized by "The Humanities Edge: Creating a Pathway to Diversified Scholarship," this panel discussion will recount the unwritten and half-forgotten histories of the city, including the experiences of Jamaican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Haitian immigrants.

Maite Morales, a Ph.D. candidate in History, will examine how carnival and festivals were transformed into sites of state control that defined Cuba's socialist culture during the second decade of the Revolution.

December

Virtuoso pianists and Cuban brothers Orlay Alonso and Orlando Alonso present an immersive experience that places the audience at the center of the "Golden Era" of Cuban music and entertainment of the 1940s and 1950s.